This invention relates to a container or box for storing core samples of the type which are generated during survey drilling procedures otherwise known as diamond drilling.
Core sample boxes have been manufactured for many years and are generally formed from wooden sheets which are nailed together to form a backing sheet and upstanding walls thus defining a number of elongate compartments or receptacles within which the core sample is retained. These boxes are then stored in racks so that the whole of the elongate sample drilled into the ground is maintained for a number of years for restudying should a further later survey be required for other purposes.
It has been appreciated for many years that the wooden core sample boxes are very unsatisfactory in that they are difficult to manufacture, do not properly hold the core sample, and provide only limited protection for the sample.
Attempts have been made therefore to design core boxes from alternative materials particularly plastics moldings and examples of these devices are shown in Canadian patent 701,985 (Glass), Canadian patent 532,244 (Genjack), Canadian patent 531,345 (McBean), Canadian patent 896,357 (Smith) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,581,929 (Guenard).
The devices shown in the above prior patents are generally unsatisfactory and have not achieved any commercial success in the marketplace. In many cases the reasons for the failure of the product to be accepted reside in its inability to remain rigid since if the product is not sufficiently rigid it can twist and become impossible to handle or can even open allowing the stored samples to be destroyed.
Many attempts have been made to manufacture products of this type by extrusion or by molding of a corrugated sheet which stores the samples on an upper surface of the sheet. However such materials have been found to have insufficient rigidity.